(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
Last night we met with our investor guy,
to go over our investments and talk about buying life insurance (it’s time to get serious about that – there’ll be a baby here in December and we can’t put it off any more).
We chatted for more than hour about what sort of risk we could afford to take with our investments and how much insurance we could afford to buy. We talked about how much money we should be putting away at our age.
When he left G was a little bummed out at the prospect of taking on another monthly bill, mainly because his work has been pretty slow for the past year and I’ll be on maternity leave in the near future. We aren’t putting away as much as we’d like to be and we defenitly don’t have an extravagant lifestyle.
We wondered if we are actually making enough money, or if we needed to get serious about finding a way to make more.
I cleaned up dinner, checked my blog stats (because it’s a terrible habit I have) and sat down with my husband to watch a movie.
I thought about what enough money might look like for us…
We’d like to save more, but it’s not like we aren’t saving at all.
My pants are getting tighter so I’ve started wearing dresses and tights for now. I won’t buy any maternity clothes I can borrow, and I won’t buy this baby anything new that I can get used.
When we want something, we try to buy it second hand – yes, out of necessity- but I LIKE finding deals at garage sales and thrift shops. I don’t mind saying no to going to concerts (or upgrading our phones ect) so that we can afford to go to Jamaica for a week instead.
We’d like to travel more, to be able to afford to visit G’s family in England more often. G would like a bigger house and there are days when I wonder how long our old computer will hold out so I can keep blogging. (The blog is too new to be making a profit – praying for a great future with it though! UPDATE: My blog officially makes a full time income!)
Some of my favorite blogs to read are money saving and finance blogs.
We try not to waste food, I shop the sales, we use credit card rewards to pay for flights, There are things that I flat out don’t buy because they are a waste of money.
But we don’t need anything, there are no debts hanging over our heads. We can afford to buy the life insurance, even if we can’t afford to buy million dollar policies. We can make sure our baby is taken care of if something happens to us. Maybe it’s easy to get confused about what enough money looks like, because we live in a culture of never enough.
Maybe “enough money” looks just like this; sitting on our comfortable second hand couch, watching Netflix after a good dinner, knowing that we have a great bed to sleep in and jobs to go to in the morning.
We have enough money. We don’t have lots of extra money, but we have enough money. As long as we are trusting the Lord to provide for us, and we are diligent with our spending and continue to make good choices, we have enough.
As long as we define enough as having our needs met, and focus on pursuing life instead of pursuing things, we have enough.
Maybe there will come a time in the future when our needs dictate that I have to focus on making this blog a profitable one, or when G has to find a new line of work. (Or we have to re-evaluate our needs, and be honest about what needs are.)
(If you are in the situation of needing extra income, read 5 side hustles that will make you money now.)
But to stress about that now, while we seem to have enough, instead of recognizing and being grateful for what we have… well, that would just be… really stupid.
I don’t want to spend my life taking what I have for granted, always chasing after more. As long as the bills are paid, there is really no use for a pile of money sitting in some bank, taking up my thoughts.
This is so true. It’s important to establish your own budget and level of contentment. It’s so easy to look at someone else and compare your living or income to theirs and think that you aren’t making enough. Life insurance is a smart move!
Thanks Clair! Yes, what do they say – comparison is the thief of joy… so cliche but so true! If we can be happy with what we have, we are very blessed 🙂
I tell my grown kids to be content but not lazy. We see so many people of all ages overload themselves just to keep up appearances, then they’re making payments on things they no longer want. Also, Just because you have what you need you still need to work. My Dad is 80 and still works.So far I’ve not found in the Bible anywhere that we are to retire. You will always need to have a purpose.
The mistake I made as a young mother was buying term life insurance instead of whole life. Unfortunately that was all I could afford at the time.
I would say buy no more whole life than what you can afford & add to it as you can. Good luck & God Bless! (love the blog)
HI Tammy! Interesting that you mention that the bible doesn’t say to retire! I was just reading the other night about how “he who won’t work shouldn’t eat” (ok, that’s badly paraphrased), but I think the Bible is VERY clear that we should work – and hard! I think when term life insurance is all you can afford, it’s still important to have it. We are going to try for whole life though!
Thank you so much for reading and for your kind comments 🙂
It interesting how God answers our prayers. Just today I was looking at properties as I drove from one destination to another for work asking “Why everything is so money centered and how much is actually enough?” I am trying to find a new house and understand the process. How it all works out financially. Your post reminded me to just trust God and those put in my path. Enough will take care of itself as long as I am doing my part.
Allison, YES, I LOVE how God answers our prayers. It’s so crazy to think that you just needed to hear that, and then He directed you to it. As long as we look to Him and remember that we will not find contentment in things or money, we will have enough!
If I can offer my 2 cents…babies don’t need much ‘stuff’ at all, good for you for realizing in advance! After 3 babies of my own, the things I would want to have would be the following: high quality car seat that converts later to a booster, a wrap carrying sling, diapers, a small potty for EC, a few soft receiving blankets, a quilt for going out, undershirts that snap down the front and tuck around the bum to snap in front, soft sleeper pyjamas, and a roomy tote bag for mom’s snacks and water bottle and a few diapers. Our babies all nursed and slept with us so things like bottles and cribs weren’t needed in our case. Of course every family is different. My kids needed to be held so strollers and swings (which we borrowed) were of minimal use. It’s so freeing to know that most things promoted as necessities for babies are laughably unnecessary!
Hi Laura! 2 cents are ALWAYS welcome! Particularly that two cents 😉 I’ve been saying to friends and family that I am going to be very diligent in not bringing a ton of stuff into the house for baby, and I’ve gotten some pretty strange looks and some eye rolling. Besides the fact that we live in a really small house without room for “stuff” I want to teach this little person right from the start that enjoyment of life comes from experiences and relationships and we don’t need to fill our lives with things to be happy.
AMEN!!!
🙂
Thanks a bunch minertiuryu for sharing this with all of us you actually know what you are talking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also visit my site =). We could have a link exchange contract between us!
Thanks for reading Hannah 🙂 I am not interested in any contracts at this time, I’m pretty swamped here as it is. Best of luck to you!
We have this same discussion too. My oldest was 5 when we finally got life insurance. I feel better having it and we just cut other things to have life insurance on both of us. Peace of mind is important so good insurance in place is a must for us.
Hi Dawn!! Yes I totally agree. I think insurance is important when you have kids… you hope you never need it, but you’ll feel better once you have it.
Well said. We shouldn’t be chasing after things as much as experiences. We should focus on our people! I hope my girls one day appreciate the amount of memories we made, rather than the amount of money.
Krystal, I think “focus on our people” is maybe the most important advice anyone could ever give!! Thank you for sharing that 🙂